Project 540i progress

[saluki540i]

To all interested: Things are coming along slowly, but steady right now. After fighting Chicago corrosion to get all 9 bushings out of the rear subframe and trailing arms, they and everything else are finally at the powdercoaters. The diff. is spotless, drained, and repainted, waiting for a cover to go back together. The new diff. mount is in after taking care of a bit of rust underneath the old one. New gas tank straps are going in next, along with new fuel line hardware. I still have a lot of cleaning to do under the rest of the back, but the wheel wells are now immaculate. I used a Duplicolor product to re do the protective coating, and it really looks promising. With all new BMW hardware, and the rear beam put back together, I'm going to use a new motorcycle floor jack from Sears. Should be way more stable, and easier on me, after bench pressing the beam out originally. At this point the trickiest thing I'm running into is the factory hard points for the brake line routing clips which are fused to the philips screws. They're so rusted, I'm knocking them off the car, after breaking two Snap-on case hardened screwdrivers. I will end up installing new stud plates or rivnuts to replace them.

[yaofeng]

I suggest you coat the BMW fuel lines good with anti-rust compound before install. I still don't know why BMW does not use plastic coated fuel line under the car body.

[saluki540i]

I've been off for a while, and had put the bimmer on the back burner to concentrate on my Merkur XR4Ti V-8 conversion. Now that it's back on all 4's for the first time in 2+ years, I'm getting the 540i going again. I am using aircraft composite hardpoints to replace the original fuel and brake line clamp studs. These get glued in from inside the car, and perfectly mimic the originals - except for using stainless screws in a std. machine thread. It was a real hassle to get replacement steel fuel lines, and took several months to come from Germany. The rear beam and other parts came out great and the clear powdercoat on the diff. cover looks killer. All that's left before reinstallation, is to have the driver side wheel bearing /stub axle pressed in by BMW - it is being a real whore, and I decided to leave it up to them and their special tools. Passenger side wasn't bad. Can't wait to get her started again, after being off the road for almost 2 years. Time flies.